1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to a mechanism for enabling the searching of songs by their melodies in sound files such as midi files.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the prior art, if one knows a song melody, but not the artist or title, about the only way to determine the title would be to ask a person having knowledge of the melody and title such as a person who works in a retail record/compact disc store. Existing music search capability available utilizing the Internet usually requires at least a part of its title or composer's name.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5.739.451. a hand held music reference device is described with song segments, typically stored as compressed MIDI files. as well as titles, lyrics, artists and the like. However, searching is generally performed by entering at least one of the title. lyrics, artist or the like which is then searched. Reference is made to note structure comparator 62 and performing a melody line search utilizing a note structure entered via directional keys. A note structure is defined as a series of relative note or pitch values. i.e., a melody line which is rising, falling or remaining the same in pitch value. Comparator 62 operates to locate songs which have the inputted note structure. Apparently, comparator 62 is a microprocessor which has been programmed to perform this function, the details of which are not set forth as searching by note structure does not appear to be the preferred mechanism for performing a search. Also, the entering of a note structure as described in this patent provides a limited mechanism for enabling the comparator to locate a desired song since basing a search on rising, falling or remaining the same pitch values provides only limited information.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,402,339, a more sophisticated mechanism is described for performing a search based on a melody . However, to perform the search, a user must enter a string of note data items which is a period and scale level of a single sound identified by a musical note. To do this, the user must possess a high level of music knowledge and sophistication, making the described mechanism unsuitable for use by the average person having a limited knowledge of music. Further, period, i.e., note duration is very difficult to estimate, even for a user having a high level of music knowledge.